Census Week
by FoxWolf64
Summary: While Kamek is taking care of Iggy after the Bowser Bash incident, the rest of the koopalings are chosen to go around the kingdom and take the national Koopa Kingdom Census. Ludwig gets partnered up with Larry, and is not looking forward to the trip.


**Census Week**

Ludwig sat in his room, looking at old machine plans from the lab, when an alert to accept E-Mail went off. He looked up, checked his computer, and saw an important message from Kamek. At the top, it read:

*Important: Please print out and pass on to the rest of the Koopalings.*

Ludwig scanned over it, then printed it out. Then, using his wand, alerted all of the Koopalings to come to the main hall. After that, he walked down the halls of the castle, arriving at the main hall. He stood by the large window and waited as the other siblings began to arrive (except Iggy, who was in quarantine from the recent Bowser Bash incident). Once they were all there, he cleared his throat, and began.

"So...Kamek sent me this E-Mail to pass on this message about matters that I will further explain. Since I am the oldest (and smartest) I will read from the E-"

"Is it about how I want to have rainbow hair like Lemmy?" Larry interrupted.

"Or how I want actual hair, instead of the 3 I already have?" Morton added.

"Shut up, Morton, I need it more than you," Wendy snapped, touching her bald head.

"No, guys, it's not about that at all, why would you think it's about that?" Ludwig sighed.

"It's because they're idiots, and the real situation is THIS situation," Roy blurted out, showing off his arm muscles.

"My ball just deflated," Lemmy whined, holding up the lifeless yellow rubber that was once his ball. "Can you get me a new one?"

"Guys, if you just cooperate, this will be nice and easy, OK?" Ludwig pleaded. "Now, let's see..."

Dear Koopalings,

As you may or may not know (probably not, because the majority of you are idiots) this week is census week. Although I usually go around door-to-door, I can't this time because I have to watch Iggy. So you guys will do it, and I expect you not to fail.

The koopalings intently nodded, waiting to hear what Kamek wanted next.

You will each be split up in groups. You will go in the oldest one's airship, and go to whatever part of the kingdom I assign. Here are the groups and areas of the census:

Morton and Roy: Bowser City in Roy's airship

"Alright!" Roy said excitedly, preparing to high five with Morton, which turned into a slap on his cheek. It knocked him over onto his shell, and due to Morton's weight, he found it hard to get back up. "Come on, Morton!" Roy laughed, holding out his hand to Morton, who grabbed it and got back on his feet.

Wendy and Lemmy: Creepy Coastline in Lemmy's airship

"Aw, sweet!" Lemmy punched the air, and then tried to bro-hug Wendy, who held her hands up in the air and faced the other way.

Ludwig and Larry: Twisted Woods in Ludwig's airship

"Oh yeah!" Larry cheered, as Ludwig rolled his eyes.

"Larry, by the time this trip ends, you're going to hate me. So don't even START celebrating."

Whoever comes back with the most records gets a special prize. You better not screw up, or I'm going to forget the prize and move on with the punishment. You will start tomorrow. I expect you to be done in a week.

_A week? With LARRY? _Ludwig thought as he read the words on the page.

Best of luck (or not):

KAMEK

P.S.: In case you're wondering, Ludwig, I did not intend for it to be this way, Larry's original partner was Iggy, but he's not available.

Ludwig read the last part silently, then folded up the E-Mail. "Tomorrow we wake up real early and get going. I know you're not looking forward to it, believe me, I'm not, but Kamek says we must. See you all later."

_THE NEXT MORNING..._

Ludwig's alarm clock rang at 6 AM. He slammed down the button, nearly breaking the clock, and got out of bed. After taking a long shower, he fixed his hair, put on his bracelets and shell, and headed out the door.

Nearly all the other Koopalings were at the airship garage. Roy was already inside his airship trying to get Morton on, and Wendy waited patiently on the crow's nest of Lemmy's airship while Lemmy created circus balls with his wand and packed them into the airship. Larry sat on the head of Ludwig's airship, between the part in Ludwig's hair.

"Larry, can you get off of there?" Ludwig asked. "I don't want my image to be ruined."

"What? But I like it up here!" Larry sarcastically complained, then jumped off. Ludwig opened the door to the inside of the ship, let Larry in, and shut the door.

"Before I start the airship, let me state a few rules while you are in my property."

Larry nodded, making a face.

Ludwig raised his eyebrows at Larry's face, then continued. "You will not bring ANY food in here. You see this?" Ludwig motioned around the luxury cabin.

"Beautiful," Larry nodded.

"It stays that way. Start to end. Food will get everywhere, and ruin this scene I have here. That piano? Don't play it. It only knows me and maybe a few boos, and if it sees that you're somebody other than me, it will eat you alive. So, don't."

"Agreed, I will not-"

"Also, don't talk to me while I'm driving. It distracts me, and we may crash. And you know how much I value this airship, right? So stay quiet."

"You know, this won't be quite a fun-"

"Good, now be quiet and do anything I say. As long as you're on this airship, you take orders from me and only me." Ludwig motioned to the list of rules on the wall. "The rules are also here if you forget."

Larry sighed and flopped down on the couch, taking his shell off. He pulled out his GameBoy and started playing it. _This is going to be a long trip - and a boring one, too. _

"And keep your clothes on," Ludwig added. "It's an unwritten rule."

Larry rolled his eyes and put his shell back on.

Ludwig started up the airship, warming up the engine, then took off. He spent awhile steering, eventually finding out that the airship hadn't moved at all. "Um, Larry?"

Larry looked up from his game. "Yes?"

"The engine's not working. Can you check what's wrong?"

"Is this a trick to leave me behind?"

"No, I swear it's not. The ship is not moving. Here, I'll go out with you," Ludwig reassured. He and Larry went outside of the airship and checked the engine.

Ludwig peeked inside. "I don't see anything..."

Larry pulled out a mini mushroom and ate it. He instantly became smaller. "Let me check inside," he said, jumping inside of the jet nozzle into the engine. Ludwig waited outside until he heard Larry's voice. "Um, is the engine supposed to be a fire flower?"

"No, wh-" Then he realized. "Who replaced the engine with a fire flower?" Ludwig yelled in anguish as Larry jumped out of the pipe and returned to normal size.

A large boo hovered over to them. "I put it in there as revenge for stealing the mad piano from my house. You can keep it, but I knew you guys were going on this trip, and I decided to play a trick on you guys."

Ludwig rolled his eyes. "I KNEW it was going to cost me," he lamented, as Larry giggled. "WHY?"

"Hold on: I have the actual engine. Just wait a moment," Big Boo said, hovering away. The sun reached noon, then set, until it was nighttime. Larry and Ludwig sat across from each other.

"Truth or dare?" Larry asked Ludwig.

"Dare, just don't give me anything stupid," Ludwig responded.

"I dare you to take your shell off and swing from the crows nest screaming, 'I'm Kooky von Koopa! Muahuahuahua!'"

"Why would I ever do that?" Ludwig sighed.

"Just do it, nobody's looking but me."

"Fine," Ludwig said, beginning to take his shell off, when Big Boo came back with the engine. "Thank you so much!" Ludwig cried. "You saved me from pure humiliation!"

Bog Boo smiled, then went into the engine, and came out with the fire flower. "There you go. Good luck!" he said, hovering away.

Ludwig and Larry went inside, and Ludwig restarted the engine, this time working, and the airship took off. Ludwig breathed a sigh of relief, flying over the mountains. Larry was in the middle of texting Lemmy about what happened (who also hadn't really gotten anything done, because Wendy was worrying about getting her favorite shoes wet) when Ludwig interrupted.

"Hey, Larry. If it wasn't for you, I wouldn't have known there was a fire flower in there. Thanks."

"The trip's not over, so cut the cheese, man," Larry said.

"Right." Ludwig flew for a few more hours, then reached Twisted Woods. Larry was asleep, and Ludwig was getting sleepy. He landed by a lake, then went to bed in his personal cabin. Just laying down got him to fall asleep.

Ludwig woke up, and walked out into the main cabin. "Larry. What did I say about no food in the main cabin?" he scolded upon seeing Larry drinking a milkshake.

"Hey, I just got hungry. Besides, it's just a milkshake. It has a lid on it."

"It can drop, the lid can come off, and spill milkshake all over the carpet and stain it. Be very careful with that."

"I'm just finishing, anyways," Larry said, slurping the last of the milkshake and throwing it out the window into the lake. Suddenly, he was surrounded by boos.

"Why did you litter?" they interrogated him.

"I...assumed that everything was dead here, so I thought you wouldn't mind..."

"We want a fantasy dark forest setting, and litter does not help that at all. Especially not in the lake."

"Um, what time is it? Aren't you boos only out at night?" Ludwig interrupted.

"No, because it's always dark here. And it's 10 AM."

"Hey, while you're here, we're from Bowser's castle, and we're taking the Koopa Kingdom census. Would you like to apply?" Larry hopefully asked.

"Do we still count, even though we're dead?" one of the boos asked.

"Yes because you're still citizens, and you live in Bowser's Kingdom, so..."

"Okay, but before that, let's take care of your punishment for littering." Two of the boos grabbed Larry's 2 middle teeth and pulled them out.

"Ow! That hurts, you know!"

"First world. We actually died, be lucky we didn't kill you," one of the boos said. "Now, to the census!"

All the boos lined up to Ludwig, as he filled out their families and such. Larry rushed to the bathroom and took care of the injury. _I don't look as fierce now as I did with 4 teeth, _he thought. _Now I only have 2... _

Ludwig finished filling out the last boo's forms, and checked on Larry. "You okay?" he asked.

"My mouth hurts. All for littering, this is my punishment?"

"I agree, the boos can be very strange, but we just need to get through. We're on our second day of the census week, so we need to really step up our game. You ready for all of this?"

Larry took one last look in the mirror, then at Ludwig. "Yeah, let's do this."

Walking out of the airship, they wandered around the forest. "Well, the fantasy/dark forest thing is certainly working out," Ludwig commented.

"Hey, could ya help a lost soul here?" a voice came from out of nowhere.

Larry and Ludwig looked around. "Who is this?" Larry asked.

"Look behind you." Both Larry and Ludwig looked around, seeing a dry bones staring at them.

"What..do you want?" Ludwig questioned.

"I's homeless," the dry bones said. "I heard both y'all are royalty. Innit true?"

"Yeah, we're Bowser's kids," Larry said slowly.

"Well, could ya help me out, here? Just a few coins, that's all."

"We...kind of have to do a census here, so..."

"Ey! Sign me up! I'm a citizen, ain't I?" the dry bones cheerfully giggled.

"You, well...don't have a home, so..." Ludwig began, then discussed with Larry. After a long huddle, they faced the dry bones again. "Okay, what's your name?" Ludwig began.

The dry bones thought for a moment. "Eh, what is it?" He cackled loudly, which caused Larry and Ludwig to exchange glances before leaving.

Next, they came to a large haunted-looking mansion. It was very elegant, with a pool, a balcony, and a few towers, and long, tall windows. Ludwig observed it, and nodded. "Whoever built this has good taste," he mused.

"Whoever built this must have been stuck in the 20's," Larry mumbled.

"The 20's? What?"

"I don't know, it's a term I know from when we visited that one ice world, what was it called...Acartica?"

"Yeah, Antarcticatia or something like that..." Ludwig pondered. "Anyway, let's do this." He knocked on the door, and a normal sized Boo answered the door.

"Hey, what do you want?" he said sleepily.

"We're here for the Koopa Kingdom Census," Ludwig stated.

"Oh, you must be the koopalings!" the boo cheerfully sang. "Just one moment..." He floated back into the house. After 2 minutes, another boo answered the door.

"Hi, who are you?" he said rudely.

"We're the koopalings. Didn't we tell you?" Larry said, confused.

"Sorry about that," the original boo chimed in. "I had to tell the master of the house."

"Wait, I'm really confused. Which one's which?" Larry questioned.

"I'm Boo Didley, I answered the door first. He's my brother, Paul Tergist."

"Why do you guys have different last names?" Ludwig asked curiously.

"We're not technically brothers," Paul explained. "We were all taken in by the master when we died. All 7,000 of us."

"Wait: 7,000?" Ludwig exclaimed, looking at Larry. "Um, yeah, we can do that..." he sighed.

They collected the information of all 7,000 residents of the manor, and decided to call it a day.

After a week of census, they decided to call the other groups to check their progress. They decided to start with Roy, putting him on speaker.

"Yo, who's this?" Roy answered.

"It's Larry and Ludwig," Larry said.

"We still have about 5 square miles to go until we covered the entire area," Ludwig explained. "How much do you have?"

"Man, we are ON A ROLL!" Roy cheered.

"On a roll!" Morton repeated.

"Big city, big progress! We are killin' it here!"

"Killin' it!" Morton repeated again.

"How much do you have left?" Larry asked. "That's a huge city!"

"Oh, well, just about ONE BLOCK LEFT!" Roy shouted.

"ONE BLOCK LEFT!" Morton repeated.

Larry and Ludwig looked at each other in amazement. "H-how? The city's smaller than our area, but there are so many more people that live there!" Larry said breathlessly.

"Well, you guys are doing well for your area. There are a lot of dead people because of Mario. Keep up the good work. You guys seem like you're working hard, even if we win,"

"Which we probably will," Morton added.

"You guys deserve the prize," Roy finished.

"Thanks, man. We'll see you tomorrow," Larry said nervously.

"Yeah, see ya!" Roy said, before hanging up.

Ludwig and Larry stared at each other for a minute, then Ludwig broke the silence. "We need to catch up with them," he said.

"Stating the obvious," Larry mumbled.

"But we can do it. We've done it this past week, we can keep it up."

"Yeah, this will be a breeze!" Larry agreed. "But before we do anything, let's call Wendy and Lemmy."

Calling Wendy's phone, they expected her to hang up, but she surprisingly picked up. "Hello?"

"Hi, this is Larry and Ludwig. We're calling to see your progress."

"Sure." Wendy handed the phone to Lemmy. "It's for you," she said rudely.

Lemmy grabbed the phone. "Hey, who is this?"

"Larry and Ludwig. How far along are you on the census?"

"We're pretty far along, I guess. Wendy lost our map, so I can't tell if we've been to places already. Everything looks the same."

"If that's the case, it means you must've done a lot of it. Keep it up!" Ludwig said.

"Thanks, bye!" Lemmy said, before Larry hung up.

"So...one group ahead, one seemingly behind. It's gonna be hard," Ludwig said.

"We'll do it though. It should be easy," Larry said confidently.

But it turned out to be harder than they thought. The last 5 square miles was a lake of purple jungle poison. Larry moaned. "How are we supposed to do this?"

Ludwig looked around at the trees, then used his wand to knock them down. He cut the middle third out, tying them together and making a raft, using a large branch as an oar.

"You have such a brilliant mind, Ludwig," Larry complimented.

"Do I now?" Ludwig said sarcastically.

For the next 8 hours, they succeeded in getting most of the residents on or around the poison lake. Right when they were going to do the last square mile, Larry tried to stand up on the raft, but lost his balance and fell into the poison liquid.

Hearing the splash, Ludwig looked back to find Larry's hand sticking out of the lake. "Larry!" he screamed, pulling him out of the poison. "Are you okay?" Ludwig asked, worried.

"Yeah, it just felt weird in there. Like acupuncture, almost," Larry said, checking himself.

They interviewed the last residents, almost getting their heads eaten off by a hungry piranha plant. They finally got back to the airship, taking off back to the castle.

It was a long ride, and Larry slept on the way back to the castle. Ludwig, not willing to wake him up, carried him to his room, and went back to his, when he ran into Kamek.

"Hey, Kamek. How is it going?"

"Good, I guess. Can you turn in your information?"

"Yeah, sure." Ludwig said, organizing his papers and handing them to Kamek, and heading off to his room, while Kamek went over to the library to check over all the koopalings' papers.

_THE NEXT MORNING..._

Larry woke up back in his room in Bowser's Castle. _This was such a long week... _he thought. _I wonder what the prize is. _He walked out of the room and into the main room, waiting for the others.

Ludwig woke up to the sound of the E-Mail. Again it was from Kamek. He read over it:

Dear Ludwig,

Congratulations on not letting me down. All of the groups did their job, and everybody was accounted for. I read the records, and I am very pleased. Please join me again down in the main room for the prize announcing. Iggy will also be down there. I feel he is done recovering. He is still a tiny bit insane, but he is mostly back to normal. I will see you downstairs.

Best of luck,

KAMEK

Ludwig smiled, closing the E-Mail and walking downstairs. He saw all of the Koopalings down there talking to each other. Larry, Lemmy, and Iggy were sitting together, talking about their experiences.

"So, Larry, I see you have only 2 teeth now. How is that?" Iggy noticed.

"Well, I got in trouble for littering, if that explains anything."

"By who?" Lemmy asked.

"The boos. They said it was one of their minor punishments, considering they were already dead."

"Makes sense," Iggy nodded.

"It really is good to have you back, Iggy," Lemmy said. "That whole lab incident really scared me."

"Yeah, I don't know what I was thinking. I guess I was just riled up by the sudden party and Bowser leaving and all that. I'm just not used to it."

"Well, you are smiling a lot more, if that counts for still insane," Larry said, and the 3 giggled. Wendy looked over at them, rolled her eyes, and continued taking selfies with the family buzzy beetle.

After a few minutes, Kamek entered the room and called for everybody's attention. "As I told Ludwig, I am very pleased with the turnout for the census. I didn't think you guys would do it, but you did. And it's time to announce the winners." Kamek cast a spell, and a banner dropped down behind him, with Larry's and Ludwig's symbols on it. "Larry and Ludwig!" Everybody clapped, as Ludwig and Larry walked up to Kamek. "So, you may choose your prize from this list."

Ludwig and Larry went into another room to discuss the prizes. "Hm. This free vacation thing looks pretty cool," Larry observed.

"Eh, I don't really want to do any more traveling after that," Ludwig said. "Let's move on."

"Ooh, this makeover thing looks nice. Tattoos, shell colors, hair, a whole day off too! This is so cool!"

"Well, I am getting tired of just a green shell," Ludwig admitted. "Let's do it."

"Alright!" Larry cheered, as both walked back into the main hall. "We've made our decision!"

"We will be doing the makeover set!" Ludwig finished.

"Okay, sounds good," Kamek nodded. "Ludwig and Larry will be gone tomorrow for their small trip, but that doesn't mean I don't have anything for you guys here." Ludwig and Larry high-fived, and ran back upstairs.

"Well, that concludes this meeting. Don't cause any trouble," Kamek said, disappearing.

Lemmy and Iggy went back to their room, and played some Super Mario Kart. Lemmy chose Bowser, and Iggy chose Mario. At the start of the game, Iggy drove Mario backwards so Lemmy could win.

"Oh how I've missed you," Lemmy commented.


End file.
